Elric vs Cullen - The Battle
by Grengar
Summary: Aaaand this is the actual fight between the two Edwards! This will be Chapter 3 in the full series of FMA vs. Twilight I am writing, the last chapter I published was a simple build-up to the battle. Enjoy!


_Chapter 3 - Edward vs. Edward_

Cullen swung his arm forward, attempting to decapitate Edward with one blow.

Edward barely had time to react.

"This guy...he looks weak, but man, is he fast!" Edward ponders.

The golden-eyed boy flips backward, only be caught in mid-air by Cullen.

"Ah! That's right! He can read minds!"

Cullen opens his mouth, ready to suck out all the blood in Edward's body and convert him into the vampire race.

Cullen sinks his teeth straight into Edward's right arm, a biting force more powerful than any normal human's.

And that's when the confusion began.

Cullen's teeth crack and splinter upon the bite. In pain, he reels back and tosses Edward aside, gripping his mouth in utter disbelief.

"That...that was the taste of metal!" he ponders. "His mind...I bit into his 'automail'?"

"That's right," Edward replies, ripping off his crimson jacket, "my right arm is made completely of metal."

"Your left leg, too." Cullen shoots back.

Edward clasps his hands together, unfazed by Cullen's mindgames. The telltale ring of alchemy sounds through the air.

"What's that now? Something called a transmutation?" Cullen wonders. He had heard tales of these alchemists, but never once anything about their combat abilities.

That's when the ground surrounding him shifts upward into massive spikes, impaling the vampire where he stands.

"Agh...gah...how...how is that...no way..." Cullen stutters.

"Alchemy seems to be different in my world than it is in yours," Edward thinks, fully aware that Cullen can read his mind.

"I influence not only the supernatural and the metals, but all the elements of the world."

Cullen shatters the stone spikes, still itching to finish off Edward.

"No more messing around," the pale-skinned vampire remarks coldly. With blinding speed, he dashes forward and punches Edward straight in the abdomen.

"Gah..." Edward coughs up. Cullen then proceeds to beat him horribly, uppercutting, jabbing, and kicking his foe fueled by anger.

"Greed had similar strength..." Edward thinks between blows, "but this guy is a lot faster..."

Cullen finally finishes by slamming Edward into the ground meters away. Bloodied and beaten, Edward tries to think clearly.

"Look, short stuff, this is idiotic. It doesn't matter how much you can influence the elements, or how much metal you're made of, it won't do you any good if you're still just a human in the end."

Suddenly, a trigger snaps in Edward's mind. His muscles fill with energy. Anger replaces what was once battle prowess and tactics. His eyes burn a horrid shade of crimson, blazing with the rage of a thousand suns.

Cullen called him short.

Edward races forward with godspeed. Uncanny strength pummels Cullen into mash, the vampire sustaining blow after blow, cut after cut, stab after stab, with no way to retaliate.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MINI-HYPER-TINY INSECT SO SMALL THAT YOU INSTINCTIVELY WANT TO STEP ON HIM?!"

"Ugh...I...can't...read his mind...it's so marred with rage..."

Edward finishes his insufferable barrage with a final blow of destruction alchemy.

Cullen is able to dodge the brunt of the blow, but Edward manages to grasp Cullen's right arm.

The vampire's arm withers away, crumbles into what resembles ashes.

Cullen lies on his back, completely astonished by what just happened.

Edward is left out of breath. His adrenalin rush begins to wear off, and his wounds take their full effect once more. He collapses from pain, blood loss, and overall exhaustion.

"But...at least I won..."

"Think again."

Edward raises his head to see Cullen standing back up, as if the wounds Edward had given him were never there. The only injury that remained was his decomposed arm.

Astoundingly, Edward rises up again to meet his opponent, but he is much more drained. He runs forward and swings hard, but Cullen merely grabs his arm and lifts him up.

"He knows exactly what I'm going to do...but how can I turn his mindreading against him?"

"Forget it, kid. The truth is, you'll never be able to beat me, and you can't turn my ability against me unless you had vampire powers of your own."

"Wait a minute...Truth! That's it!" Edward realizes.

"Truth? What could you possibly get from-"

All of a sudden, Cullen is surrounded by endless white. A blank dimension, with nothing but two humongous doors with cryptic symbols engraved on their stone-colored faces.

"Where am I...? And where's that alchemist?"

[HE IS WHERE YOU WILL NOT RETURN TO.]

Cullen spins around, coming face to face with a being as tall as him, as big as him, a mirror image of his physique, with no features whatsoever, outlined in black particles.

"Who are you? Do you know what this place is?"

[YOU CAN CALL ME WHATEVER YOU LIKE. SOME CALL ME GOD. SOME CALL ME TRUTH. YOU ARE IN A POCKET DIMENSION, AND THESE ARE THE GATES OF TRUTH.]

"I can't even read his mind..." Cullen thinks to himself. This being is stranger than any vampire he had ever met.

[NO, EDWARD CULLEN. BUT I CAN READ YOURS. AND YOU HAVE COMMITTED TREASON AGAINST NATURE.]

Astounded, Cullen's eyes widen with fear. What did this...thing...want with him? And what treason could he have committed?

[I SAW YOUR FIGHT WITH EDWARD ELRIC. AND I MUST SAY, NICE JOB FENDING HIM OFF. AND I APPLAUD HIS TACTIC OF EXPLOITING ME.]

Cullen pieces together what has happened. The glimpse of the dimension he saw brought him here. The dimension he saw when Edward remembered the Gates of Truth he was sucked into as a child.

[YOU ARE A VAMPIRE. YOU HATE THE ALCHEMISTS FOR DEFYING NATURE, YET YOU YOURSELVES ARE ABOMINATIONS. AND FOR ATTEMPTING TO DEFY THAT WHICH EMERGES FROM MY UNIVERSE, YOU WILL PAY THE ULTIMATE PRICE.]

The Gate behind Cullen opens slowly, and an ensemble of arms reaches out from it and seizes him before he can react.

"What are these? And where are they taking me?" Cullen screams.

[MY, MY. SO MANY QUESTIONS. MAYBE YOU'LL BE ENLIGHTENED WHEN YOU ARE FACED WITH THE TRUTHS OF OUR WORLD...THEN YOU SHALL RETURN TO YOURS, STRIPPED OF WHAT YOU MUSTER EVERY WAKING MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE.]

Screaming, writhing, Cullen is sucked into the Gate of Truth. The torment is unbearable, an entire dimension of darkness, eyes swirling around him, as he witnesses the horrors of the Fullmetal Alchemist universe.

And within an instant, it's over. Cullen returns to his dimension, flat on his back, on the same grassy plains, with Edward standing above him.

Cullen picks himself up, but staggers. He attempts to run towards Edward, but his legs refuse to move fast, instead feeling weighed down and extremely slow.

"You...! What did you do to me?" Cullen screams with a raspy hatred in his voice."

"Me? I didn't do anything. He was the one who took away your vampirism." Edward smirks.

Cullen's eyes snap open, a rush of regret and powerlessness occupying every fiber of his being. How could this be? Was he forever doomed to be shunned by all of vampire kind, even killed when the Volturi learn of this?

"Vampire or not, you do appear to be a living being. That's why I'm going to let you live. If you're lucky, you'll grow accustomed to your new humanity. But for now, stick around."

Cullen sinks down to his knees. Demoralized, crushed, broken, whatever words could be used to described the pure fear of utter defeat and loss of identity, are what the former vampire was.

Edward transmutes a stone structure around Cullen, several feet thick and inescapable by any human.

"That'll make sure he doesn't call any of his friends. And with luck, it'll be several hours before they find him."

And with that, Edward gathers up his coat and hurries along to reunite with Alphonse.


End file.
